The New Zealand Rally Championship returns to the roads of Southland in July when the Barry Robinson Memorial Rally Southland takes place.
Organised by the Eastern Southland Car Club, the event will take place on Saturday, 18 July, with a ceremonial start scheduled for Friday, 17 July, at Invercargill Central, right in the heart of Invercargill, where there is an opportunity to see the cars up close and meet the drivers.
This is just the club’s second-ever National Championship rally, but the fourth time they have held a rally in memory of one of Southland’s best-ever rally drivers – Barry Robinson, who farmed in the Eastern Southland area.
Their previous National Championship Rally was in 1984, the event won by one of their club members, Inky Tulloch. It is the first time the club has run a full rally with notes, pre-prepared safety notes of each stage to help drivers and co-drivers.
A round of the national championship used to be a regular feature on the southern motorsport calendar until 2004, before a return in 2024, and now the country’s best rally drivers are set to return to the roads of the province.
An exciting day of competition is planned with the cars in Invercargill on the Friday night for the ceremonial start before taking the start of the rally itself outside Wyndham’s Three Rivers Hotel in Redan Street at 8.30am on Saturday, 18 July.
The high-speed Special Stages feature a blend of the Eastern Southland Car Club’s Wyndham Rally roads of the past three years, combined with some of the iconic stages of the Rally of Southland from years gone by.
The first stage takes place at Tuturau at 9.00am, a stage used by the club for the Gore Rally back in the day, as well as Wyndham in more recent times.
The cars return to Wyndham at 9.28am for the first Service Park of the day, before two more stages – Wyndham Valley at 10.10am and Waikawa Valley at 10.38am.
The cars visit the second Service Park of the event in Tokanui at 11.09am followed by stages at Pine Bush and Graham Road – the Graham Road stage a carbon copy of that used for the Rally Of Southland many years ago. The cars return to Tokanui for another Service Park at 12.44pm before the two remaining stages – Fortification at 1.42pm and an iconic Rally Of Southland Stage – Dunsdale. Both the Fortification and Dunsdale stages have been used in various directions and guises in past Southland Rally’s.
The rally will end at the Ascot Park Hotel in Invercargill at 3.45pm after 160 kilometres of Special Stage mileage and 180km of Touring Stages.
Roger Laird of the Eastern Southland Car Club says, “The early stages are what we have used in the recent Wyndham Rally events, and we have stuck with them as they work well. Then, as we head back to Invercargill, we get to the more traditional old Rally Of Southland stage, Dunsdale, a very cool 22km stage.”
The event is Round 3 of the NZ Rally Championship and Round 4 of the Mainland Rally Series, ensuring the cream of New Zealand rallying talent will be contesting it.
Header Image: Graeme Fraser
